Oil pipeline's permit approval reignites debate

By Keith Magill Executive Editor

Friday

Dec 15, 2017 at 5:37 PMDec 18, 2017 at 12:22 PM

Correction: This story was corrected to eliminate a quote from a Sierra Club official who incorrectly stated that ETP built the Keystone XL Pipeline. In fact, the company built the Dakota Access Pipeline.

A crude oil pipeline that will run from Lake Charles to the Vacherie area won key permit approvals this week.

The Bayou Bridge Pipeline has pitted supporters who favor the jobs, tax revenue and economic benefits against opponents who cite environmental concerns.

The Army Corps of Engineers issued notice late Thursday that it has issued a permit for the 162.5-mile pipeline after completing a study on its environmental impact.

“The corps carefully weighed the energy benefits of the project while ensuring environmental protections remain in place,” Martin Mayer, chief of the corps' New Orleans District Regulatory Branch, said in a news release. “We will remain vigilant in monitoring the project to ensure that the pipeline remains in compliance with all permit conditions.”

The underground pipeline, 24 inches in diameter, would stretch across 11 parishes, including Assumption and St. James. It would also pass under Bayou Lafourche, which provides drinking water for more than 300,000 people in Lafourche, Terrebonne, Assumption and Ascension parishes.

Officials with Energy Transfer Partners have said the company's pipeline is safe and designed to prevent mishaps that could pollute the water.

"We are very pleased to have received the permits from the Army Corps of Engineers for our Bayou Bridge pipeline project," the company said on its website. "This moves us to the final step of the permitting process."

The firm received a water-quality permit Tuesday from the state Department of Environmental Quality. It now awaits a permit from the Atchafalaya Basin Levee Board and approval from the state Coastal Protection Restoration Authority; the company says it expects both shortly.

"We will begin mobilizing for the start of construction once we receive these approvals," the company said.

The pipeline will carry 480,000 barrels of crude per day from Lake Charles to storage tanks along the Mississippi River in St. James Parish. The oil will then head to refineries in the Baton Rouge area.

The company says it will spend about $750 million on the project, generating about $1.8 million in property taxes during the first year the pipeline is in service. Construction will yield another $17.6 million in sales tax revenue, along with about 2,500 construction jobs.

Environmentalists repeated their concern about the impact on wetlands and wildlife in the Atchafalaya Basin.

"The Atchafalaya Basin is the largest wetland and swamp in the United States and is the main floodway for the Mississippi River," said Dean Wilson, executive director of Atchafalaya Basinkeeper. “The Army Corps is supposed to protect its water quality but instead has worked hand-in-glove with the oil industry to treat it as a sacrifice zone for irresponsible oil development. We won’t tolerate it any longer.”

Federal law requires a full environmental analysis, and consideration of alternatives, prior to authorizing actions that have significant environmental impacts, Wilson said. Studies show crude oil pipelines in Louisiana leak regularly and disrupt water flow and wildlife habitat, but the corps determined Bayou Bridge did not have significant impacts, qualifying it for streamlined permitting.

In a joint statement, Basinkeeper, the Gulf Restoration Network and the Waterkeeper Alliance vow to sue the corps if it does not reverse its decision on the permit.

Louisiana's Sierra Club chapter expressed similar concerns in a separate statement today. It says the corps' permit allows Energy Transfer Partners to destroy 142 acres of high-quality, forested wetlands in the Atchafalaya Basin.

"These wetlands are impossible to replace, even with the mitigation the permit requires," the group says.

The corps defends its decision.

“The corps neither supports nor opposes this project,” Col. Michael Clancy, commander of the New Orleans District, said in the agency's news release. “Our mission is to apply the best science, engineering and information available to determine if a proposed project complies with all regulations under our authority.”

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